LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

The federal Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 authorizes the Secretary of the Interior, subject to the availability of appropriations, to provide financial assistance to the State of Maryland and the State of Louisiana for a program to implement measures to eradicate or control nutria and restore marshland damaged by nutria. Under the federal act, the federal share of the costs of the program is prohibited from exceeding 75% of the total costs of the program.

This measure would urge the United States Congress to specifically add California to the Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 and to authorize an appropriation of $4,000,000 to help the state implement a nutria eradication program.

Digest Key

Fiscal Committee:
YES

Bill Text

WHEREAS, The wetlands of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley provide significant cultural, economic, and ecological benefits to the nation; and

WHEREAS, Nutria (Myocastor coypus) are contributing to the acceleration of wetland loss on federal, state, and private lands in California; and

WHEREAS, The nutria infestation in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta represents a grave threat to California’s water supply and quality, and levy failure precipitated by nutria burrows could flood hundreds of acres of farmland; and

WHEREAS, The effective partnership between the state and the federal government was crucial in the success the State of Maryland has experienced in nearly extirpating nutria from the Chesapeake Bay; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature urges the United States Congress to specifically add California to the Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003, with a goal to eradicate nutria in the state; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature urges the United States Congress to authorize an appropriation of $4,000,000 to help the state implement a nutria eradication program; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Secretary of the Interior, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States, and to the author for appropriate distribution.